Contribution

It is the possibility of allowing people in rural and remote areas of the country/countries to take advantage of the internet for better, faster and efficient private and public services.

Have you observed any regional or national specificities regarding connectivity (e.g. Internet industry development)?

in Afghanistan, Internet and telecommunication providers started their services in 2001/02 and reached the mass in the first few years. Though mobile telecommunication services have reached 80-85% of the country, the quality of service and the technologies used are poor. The 3G service is limited to very few main cities of the country and development in terms of speed, reliability and accessibility has been non-existent.

Do you know of existing policy measures, and private sector or civil society initiatives addressing connectivity? If yes, was the policy a government policy, industry policy (either collective best practice or corporate policy), technical policy, or did i

There has been no serious policy measure in Afghanistan. Civil society have collaborated and put pressure on the government to define policies and bring improvement to the existing infrastructure so that the stagnant penetration number could be increased.

In your opinion, what worked well in the development of the policy, and what impediments were encountered?

There has been measurable policy development in terms of infrastructure and capacity development.

What was the experience with implementation?

The initial policy development that has been done in local infrastructure development had no input from the civil society, academia or private sector in general but the telecommunication companies themselves.

Did you experience any unintended consequences of policy developments/interventions, good and bad?

The current policies or their implementation does not allow the telecommunication companies and ISPs to provide quality of service at affordable prices. Prices of access to internet in Afghanistan has been highest in Asia Pacific according to ITU's 2014 report.

Can you think of unresolved issues where further multistakeholder cooperation is needed?

Absolutely yes, There are many unresolved issues such as accessibility, reliability, price, quality and the use of newer technologies. All of these issues can and must be addressed in a multistakeholder approach where private sector, civil society and academia can work hand in hand with the government and improve the services, resolve the issues, and plan future growth.

Did you gain any insight as a result of the experience?

Yes,
1. The current policies and policy implementers have very limited approach for regional and global cooperation for improving national telecommunication infrastructure.
2. IT sector focus was on irrelevant issues instead of infrastructure development.
3. Corruption, nepotism and discrimination have not allowed the right human skills to work on the policy development and its implementation. This is also the reason that multi stakeholder dialogue is resisted.

List proposed steps for further multistakeholder dialogue/actions.

1. Identify key areas to address, take inputs from private sector and civil societies.
2. Develop strategies for those areas.
3. Involve public feedback in true and effective manner rather just filling up papers.
4. Capacity development programs in collaboration with academia and civil societies.
5. Strong organization for stronger regulations, monitoring and evaluation.